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Former Argo fighting to return to Canada for life-saving cancer treatment

Ailing athlete, who had been deported to his native Jamaica, is desperate to join wife and children in Canada and to undergo special cancer treatment.

Andrew Stewart, shown with wife Sharon and daughters, Madison, 15, and Jada, 12, is battling cancer. The former Toronto Argo, who was deported to Jamaica in 2009, is hoping to reunite with his family and receive life-saving cancer treatment in Canada. (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

Former Toronto Argonaut Andrew Stewart wants desperately to come home to Canada.

But Stewart, who has cancer and has been told he has three to five months to live without treatment, can’t just get on a plane and fly back.

The ailing athlete, who helped the Argos win back-to-back Grey Cups in 1996 and 1997 and played for numerous other Canadian Football League and National Football League teams, is one of Canada’s infamous deportees — permanent residents who were forced to leave because they committed a crime.

Stewart, who also suffers from Parkinson’s disease, now lives in Jamaica — where he was born. But he has no family, job or relatives there. He came to Canada with his parents as a child. His family — his wife, two daughters — live in Surrey, B.C. He has a son from another relationship who also lives in Canada.

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Sharon Stewart, his 47-year-old wife, applied for a spousal sponsorship to bring him home in February 2013. She also applied for special authorization from the government that would allow him to return. But three years later she is still waiting to hear if her husband can come home.

That’s much longer than the 18 to 22 months cited as the wait time for spousal sponsorship applications. And it is at odds with Immigration Minister John McCallum’s statements that dealing with delays in spousal sponsorship applications was a top priority for him.

“We’re over double the processing time,” said a frustrated Sharon Stewart in a phone interview from B.C. “It’s disturbing … This has absolutely devastated our daughters.”

What makes the lengthy wait even worse is her husband’s cancer diagnosis and the fact he has been told Jamaica can’t provide the right treatment for him.

“For me, it’s my family,” Andrew Stewart said by phone from Jamaica. “Sharon and the girls. We’ve been together a long time. Married almost 20 years. I have a special needs daughter … I love Canada. I lived there for 35 years. It’s a great country. My family is there. Now, the other reason is my life — to save my life.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has been notified of the cancer diagnosis and the urgency for processing his application, his wife said.

“This is a complex case given that Mr. Stewart has been found to be inadmissible to Canada for serious criminality,” IRCC spokesman Remi Lariviere said in response to questions from the Star.

“The Department has been in contact with Mr. Stewart and is continuing to process his application for permanent residence,” Lariviere said. “We understand that Mr. Stewart is ill and is needed by his family. The visa officer will consider these circumstances during the assessment of his application.”

“It’s life or death,” said Sharon Stewart. “It’s not about Parkinson’s anymore. I wish that’s all it was. If he doesn’t get treated, that’s it. There’s nothing for him there. Every country he has to get to from Jamaica you need a visa and that takes two or three months. He needs treatment immediately or we lose him.”

“It’s so distressing,” she said, her voice quavering.

In the original spousal application filed in 2013, Sharon Stewart asked Ottawa to allow her husband to come home for humanitarian reasons because she needed help with their youngest daughter, who has serious developmental and learning problems.

Soon after, Stewart was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. And in March, he received more bad news — a diagnosis of cancer on his tonsils, and five cancerous nodes in his neck.

According to a letter from a radiation oncologist in Jamaica, Stewart will be dead in three to five months if he doesn’t get treatment. He was advised to go abroad for intensity modulated radiation therapy which isn’t available on the island.

“Because of the rapidity of the growth of his tumour his situation is considered critical and he could still benefit from chemo-radiation if given urgently,” says a letter from the oncologist, provided to the Star by Stewart.

“I’m a 50-year-old man. I have a young family. The doctor says you need to go overseas. That was his first words to me. Our system here doesn’t give you a fighting chance.”

Apart from his current health concerns, Stewart is part of a groundbreaking lawsuit against the National Football League involving players and “the pathological and debilitating effects of head injuries and concussions.”

Stewart’s permanent residence status was taken away because he was indicted for fraud in the U.S. in 1998 as well as credit card fraud in Canada in 2002. He eventually surrendered to U.S. officials and was sentenced in December 2005, serving 18 months in jail in Pennsylvania. As for the Canadian charges, he was given a conditional sentence of two years less a day and three years probation. The conditions of his probation included 150 hours of community service, six months of house arrest and regular attendance at Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

Stewart was eventually deported in February 2009. He said he found life in Jamaica intolerable. His wife and his two daughters — Jada, 12, and Madison, 15 — were unable to join him there because Jada has special needs and couldn’t get the education she requires in Jamaica, Stewart said.

“Andrew is her person,” said his wife. “He’s her comfort person. That’s who she turns to if she’s getting uncontrollable . . . He’s the person who can get her back down.”

Stewart said he eventually returned to Canada on a fraudulent passport so he could help his wife with Jada’s care. “I didn’t leave the house for four years,” he said. He was eventually caught and deported a second time.

“We’ve put everything into this application and we’ve been waiting for three years,” added Stewart, who said he has put his past behind him. He served time; he made financial restitution, he said. “I’ve tried to do the right thing,” he said. “I accept responsibility.”

“At the end of the day if I don’t get home within the time, I’m going to die. And nothing scares me more than losing my family like that . . . At Princess Margaret Hospital there’s a radiograph machine that can treat the nodes in my neck in 10 treatments. This is totally preventable.

“I just want my family back together. My cancer will kill me if I don’t see a doctor … Imagine waking up and knowing there is nothing anybody can do unless you get on a plane and go somewhere else and you can’t. I can see the lymph nodes on my neck getting bigger. And there’s nothing I can do.”

Andrew Stewart’s football career:

Andrew Stewart played two seasons for the Cleveland Browns.

Andrew Stewart first played professional football in the National Football League with the Cleveland Browns. He played for two seasons — 1989 and 1990. He was released from the Browns in November 1990 after being on the injured reserve list for three months due to an Achilles tendon injury. He signed with the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1991 off-season. He suffered a torn knee ligament in July 1991, missing part of the 1991 and 1992 season. When his contract with the Bengals ran out, he joined the San Francisco 49ers. In the pre-season in 1993, he suffered a right hand injury and was eventually released from the team.

Andrew Stewart was traded to the B.C. Lions in 1994.

In 1993, Stewart began playing in the Canadian Football League, signing first with the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1993 and playing six games for the team. In 1994, he was traded to the B.C. Lions where he played two seasons, winning a Grey Cup with the team and was defensive player of the game. He was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

Andrew Stewart signed with the Toronto Argos in 1996.

Stewart signed with the Toronto Argonauts for the 1996 season, playing from 1996 to 1997 and helping the team win back-to-back Grey Cups. He was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in May 1998 and was released by them a year later. He went on to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 1999 season. He signed on with the Argos in 2000, but he had a debilitating injury, tearing his quadricep muscle from his knee. He retired from football in 2001.

Minister committed to act on uniting families:

Earlier this year John McCallum, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, spoke to the Star about how important he felt it was to pick up the pace of processing times, particularly for spousal sponsorships. He indicated that he feels very strongly that the processing time for spousal sponsorship should be improved dramatically.

“Apart from the refugees that was probably our core commitment in the election – that processing times have gone up like crazy over the past 10 years,” said McCallum during the interview. “And we’re committed to bring them down. If there was one promise that we made that was central, I would say it was dealing with processing times and that is principally family members, parents, grandparents, spouses, dependent children, also refugees, also caregivers, also citizenship applicants.

“All of those groups have seen substantial increases in their processing times.The one to me that is the most egregious is the processing time of spouses and dependant children. To me it is unconscionable, unacceptable to keep a husband and wife apart from each other for something on the order of two years. Two years can you imagine? Most Canadians are married or have partners. For the state to keep you from your partner for two years I think is unacceptable. So if I had to say a single thing that was a primary target it would be to get that time down.”

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